I guess I could say this was a long journey? I didn't expect this year to be smooth but it sure was. There wasn't much hardship I have to deal with in this class. I've acquired an abundant amount of knowledge from this. I learned a lot from here. That first time when I learned to use Photoshop was amazing because then I realized that I could be making "quality content" instead of just wasting the days away. Learning to use Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects is probably the most rewarding and the most satisfying experiences I have in this class. Why? Well, I messed around with photos and videos frequently. It seems to be the only thing I would actually invest my time into besides video games. Learning to use those programs was rewarding because it's setting me up for something "greater"? I could be investing my time into editing and honing editing skills instead of just playing video games. That's why I think this is very rewarding. Some of the skills I have learned and acquired throughout this class will definitely stick with me into the future. Some of these skills are knowing how to use Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and 3ds Max, working with 3d models, knowing how to make a 2d and 3d animation. Editing and 3d modelling will probably stick with me the most since invest my free time into those two things. I knew from the beginning we won't be playing games in this class. I tried to focused in everything I have learned in class throughout the year but I would still tend to really concentrate on working with Adobe stuff (Except Adobe Animate, It is a taboo and I never wanted to work with it ever) and 3d modelling. For now, I'll try to focus on those two things. Until coding/ programming came to me, those two are my main objectives for the current time being. Would I say this class is easy? Yes, from my experiences at least. This class was very enjoyable and fun but it does get tedious sometimes. Also, from what I have heard, this is the toughest class in the entire school. This is the probably the last bit of fun I am going the have. Maybe I would actually enjoy the upcoming challenges but I don't really know about that. This visual includes some of my artworks throughout this year and the main takeaway from the materials we have covered in this class. In a nutshell
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This is my last regular school day and this is the one of last assignments I have to do for Game Design. I'm certain that I would take this class for the rest of my highschool years. My main objective is to get into coding/programming. I enjoyed this class greatly. This class can get overwhelming sometimes but I can pushed through and move pass the working blocks. Even though things we did in the class such as 2D animation kind of makes me dislike the class a little bit but despite that everything else is completely fine with me. I'm somewhat interested in the 3D modelling and especially working and messing around in Adobe Photoshop. I don't really know what else to write in post so I'll try to some up my thoughts about this class in the next sentence. This class is amazing and probably one of my most favorite classes in the entire school.
It has been several weeks since I've gotten to work with modelling in 3ds Max. Besides working with basic primitives, I have been manipulating subobjects, working with modifiers and adding materials to textured some of my models. As you might know from my previous blog post, my experience with 3d Modelling has been very easy. After multiple weeks of working with 3d modelling, the experience was still blissful and smooth. I still think 3d modeling is pretty easy for me. Like I said before, I have been working with subobjects. I would say I am moving away from basic primitives or shapes. I have created more complicated primitives. Here are some of them: Here are some of my previous works that only uses basic primitives: There are differences between some of my works. I have used multiple primitives in order to make a single 3d model (the snowman). On the other hand, I only used a single primitive to create the face and the futuristic world. Besides working with subobjects, I have also gotten to experience the material editors. To be honest I didn't really enjoy the material editors. No matter what I do, the rendered texture would not satisfy me at all. I definitely need to spend more of my time inside the material editors. One of the strange things I have worked with in 3ds Max is Splines. What are splines? Pretty much it's a 2d shape inside a 3d modeling applications. This was very contradicting to me for whatever reason. In conclusion:
3d Modelling has been a breeze for me so far. It is pretty easy for me to do my assignments. I guess my experience from Roblox Studio kind of transfer over to 3ds Max. I hope this unit gets a little more challenging since I have some experience with 3d modelling. I'm certain that 3d modelling can get pretty complicate and challenging. I am not really worried about how I would do with 3d modelling in the future. I have not made anything complicated in 3ds max yet. So far I have only been messing around with basic geometric shapes like spheres and pyramids. Hopefully, I get to mess around with something free formed. 3ds Max interface is significantly more complicated than that of Roblox Studio. 3ds Max has tools that are pretty useful such as the extrude tool. I haven't gone through all of the tabs but I think I got the hang of the interface for now. I kind of wish the interface was a little bit more simplified. This unit will definitely help me make custom models to use in a game. What I enjoy about this unit is the fact that I could create anything. What I've done in class so far kind of making me feel a little bit excited for the future. Here are some of my work: As stated before, I have only had the chance to be messing around with very basic shapes hence why my work is quite basic and simple. In conclusion:
At this point of the year, I am done with the 3rd quarter of the school and is now moving into spring break. Throughout the 3rd quarter, I get to work with Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Animate (Macromedia Flash). I get to learn about 2D animation and video editing. This quarter was shorter than usual and it was somewhat of a struggle in Game Design. The good part about this quarter is that there were no late work penalties in my Game Design class. I wasn't built for 2D animation at all. I find the animating process extremely tedious. The subject itself wasn't hard to comprehend or understand at all. The process of understanding keyframes, tweens, and interpolations was smooth. It took no effort to get a grasp on those three subjects. Animating was a heavy task for me. Adobe Animate wouldn't cooperate with me throughout my assignments and I have to deal with a ton of errors with shape tweens. Moving on from 2D animation, I get to work with motion graphics in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Transitioning over was a relief for me. I feel much more comfortable using Adobe Premiere and After Effects. I actually enjoy using those two editors. My grades in this quarter weren't as good compared to the 1st and the 2nd quarter of the school years. I think I could've pulled off a much better job and do better on my quizzes and tests.
To sum up all this: -My grades worsen -The 3rd quarter was a real struggle for me So far, I have worked with After Effects, Animate, and Premiere. All of them are motion-based applications by Adobe. After Effects and Premiere has a pretty similar layout. Both of them has the timeline located at the bottom right of the screen. You can import your assets and find them in a box to the left of the timeline on both applications. It was pretty easy for me to get used to the layout of both programs since I've messed around with other video editing software like Camtasia and Hitfilm. Animate was kind of like Illustrator except there is a timeline located at the top. I would say that Animate is more vector based, and After Effects and Premiere is more like a video editor. I still have not explored much of the tabs in Premiere. As of now, I know where my imported assets are located, where the timeline is (obviously), and where the effect controls are. After Effects and Premiere layout will probably be easy for me to get used to. It does not seem too complicated for me since this extremely similar to a video editing software that I use for fun, which is Hitfilm. Switching around from After Effects to Premiere would not be any problems at all. In a nutshell:
I'm going to be honest here, this unit overall is pretty agonizing for me. Starting off Animation for my Game Design class, I had to create a ball animation that lasted for ten seconds. It sounds pretty easy until I have to create 120 cels and then edit them one by one. It's still quite easy but it is also a tedious process. This first activity was okay, I was somewhat happy with what I've created. The next activity is all about me. I have to use Adobe After Effects to make a twenty seconds long video about myself. I actually enjoy this one more than anything else because I get to use Adobe After Effects (Video Editing) and it's much less time consuming than the first activity. The last activity of this unit is what destroyed my experience the most. I have to create a gif of a monster eating a blob in Adobe Animate a.k.a. Macromedia Flash. Making the sketch, and drawing out the monster's parts was fine and simple but getting to animate is what pains me the most. Getting the monster's mouth to work was a pain. After adding the shape tween, the mouth would just fold into itself and rotate as it's going to the 15 frame. The shape hints did not help to solve the problem. The monster's teeth also have the same problem. I still haven't finished this activity completely.
The most important things I learned from this unit is that
Whenever a player goes afk or leaves a game alone for a bit, idle animations will be triggered. Idle animations are easy to overlook and they are overlooked by many players. Idle animations are subtle in building characters if they are done well. Like many players, I myself often overlook idle animations but whenever it is triggered, it stays in my head for a while. Warframe is my probably my favourite one and I am going to focusing on Volt's idle animation, specifically his Agile idle animation. When Volt is idling without any weapons at all, Volt will spread his arms out and releases electricity around himself. This idle animation really fits with the frame (Warframe's battle armor, the player) since Volt's abilities consist of shocking enemies and electrical devices in the map, and nuking everything with electricity. Volt's ultimate has an extremely huge area of effect. This idle animation also reminds me of Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I didn't choose the Noble variant of the animation because it shows too much movement for an idle animation. In the Noble variant, Volt steps forward, spread his legs apart, and pushes one arm out while releasing electricity from his palms. The Agile variant of the animation appeals more to me since the pose is quite similar to his nuking abilities. It's like a reminder of what he is capable of doing. The Agile idle animation variant also shows little sparkles surrounding both of his arms before the electricity released. Pretty much:
Sources:
Couture, Joel. “What Makes a Great Idle Animation? Devs Share Their Favorites.” Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games, gamasutra.com/view/news/318163/What_makes_a_great_idle_animation_Devs_share_their_favorites.php. “Idle Animations.” WARFRAME Wiki, warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Idle_Animation My game design class is done Adobe Illustrator. Well, partially. I still have to use it for making my artwork. Right now I am moving into animation. When I was given my first assignment, I already dislike it. I have to make 120 cels for my first animation. The process is pretty easy but it is an extremely tedious process. Editing 120 images is fine but there is no shortcut for exporting and that ticked my off a little bit. I still have sixty more cels to work on. I think this would be a little bit more interesting later on since I am still working on my very first animation. I still have to say that I am not really interested in this side of game design.
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AuthorHi, I'm Thanakorn. This is my blog where I reflect on my work from Game Design :) Archives
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